"
"And yet is the Holy Scripture communicated for our common salvation,"
said Elspeth. "Good Father, you must instruct mine ignorance better;
but lack of wit cannot be a deadly sin, and truly, to my poor
thinking, I should be glad to read the Holy Scripture."
"I dare say thou wouldst," said the monk; "and even thus did our
mother Eve seek to have knowledge of good and evil, and thus Sin came
into the world, and Death by Sin."
"I am sure, and it is true," said Elspeth. "Oh, if she had dealt by the
counsel of Saint Peter and Saint Paul!"
"If she had reverenced the command of Heaven," said the monk, "which,
as it gave her birth, life, and happiness, fixed upon the grant such
conditions as best corresponded with its holy pleasure. I tell thee,
Elspeth, _the Word slayeth_--that is, the text alone, read with
unskilled eye and unhallowed lips, is like those strong medicines
which sick men take by the advice of the learned. Such patients
recover and thrive; while those dealing in them at their own hand,
shall perish by their own deed."
"Nae doubt, nae doubt," said the poor woman, "your reverence knows
best."
"Not I," said Father Philip, in a tone as deferential as he thought
could possibly become the Sacristan of Saint Mary's,--"Not I, but the
Holy Father of Christendom, and our own holy father, the Lord Abbot,
know best. I, the poor Sacristan of Saint Mary's, can but repeat what
I hear from others my superiors.
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